Vintage knitting book

One of the new members of my fiber arts group, Janet, brought a box of old knitting and crocheting books to our meeting last week. I snagged an old Patons booklet 7115 Bazaar Novelties and Gifts by Beehive. There's no copyright information. My guess would be 1960's. It has patterns for dog coats, tea cosies, toilet tissue covers (hat, doll, poodle), stuffed toys (clown, cat, teddy bear), lots of poodle patterns (soap cover, bottle cover, cleanser cover, etc.), and lots of slipper patterns (cabled with purchased soles, ripple, TV boots, cuffed, mens, and corn slippers). That's a lot packed into a 22 page booklet for only $1.50!

The sock heel is done and I'm ready to start the cuff. :-) I pulled out my spinning wheel and a Corriedale/tencel blend I got at Michigan Fiber Fest last year. It's a nice blend of pink and peachy tones with shiny white tencel running through it. It's spinning up pretty fine. I should get a lot of yardage from it. The roving did have a very strong smell of perfume or something that really bothered my eyes and nose. I left it out overnight to air out. My first attempt at spinning this fiber gave me fits. The tencel is not evenly distributed through the wool and as it changed from wool to tencel and back, I had to be careful. It was slow and careful work and not a lot of fun. I predrafted the roving but it didn't help much. Last night, I tried another tack. I pulled out a length of roving, held it widthwise between my hands, and gently pulled sideways to loosen it up. It had gotten a little felted in storage. Next, I split it lengthwise into two long pieces. I drafted a few of the thick spots and left the rest alone. Ahh, this time the spinning was much easier. I have to learn with each new fiber or blend how best to handle it for spinning. Each one "tells" me how it wants to be spun. For me, spinning is not science. I don't count how many treadles to how much twist or such. It's much more intuitive and what "feels right" to me.